Pear and walnut cake made with
– a walnut biscuit
– a walnut praline crunch
– a pear mousse
– a walnut mousse
– a pear jelly.
Material used
– Square frame 15X15x4.5 cm
– Ancel 210 bloom gelatin
– Tefal baking tray
– Baking paper
Ingredients
Walnut biscuit (the day before)
✔65 g walnut powder
✔1 egg
✔2 egg whites
✔65 g icing sugar
✔20 g butter
✔15 g flour
✔15 g caster sugar
Walnut praline
✔100g nuts
✔50g caster sugar
White chocolate and nut praline crisp (the day before)
✔50g wanut praline
✔25g white chocolate
✔10g crêpes dentelles
Pear mousse
✔2 sheets of gelatine (3g)
✔120g pear puree
✔100g cold liquid cream
✔15g icing sugar
Walnut mousse (the day before)
✔1 yolk
✔10g sugar
✔40g milk
✔3g gelatine
✔50g praline nut
✔100g cold liquid cream
Pear jelly
✔3g gelatine
✔150g pears
✔10g water
The recipe
Pour 4 personnes
Walnut biscuit (the day before)
✔65 g walnut powder
✔1 egg
✔2 egg whites or about 100g
✔65g icing sugar
✔20g butter
✔15 g flour
✔15 g caster sugar
In a mixing bowl, add the nut powder (just finely blend some nuts), icing sugar and whole egg. Mix. Add the sifted flour, the melted butter. Mix well. In another bowl, beat the egg whites with the powdered sugar. Incorporate a third of the egg whites and mix to loosen the mixture, then gently fold the rest into the mixture with a pastry blender. Pour the biscuit dough onto a baking tray covered with baking paper and smooth out the dough. Bake the biscuit for 8 to 10 minutes at 180°C.
Remove the biscuit from the oven and allow it to cool before peeling it off the paper and cutting out two squares using your pastry frame.
Place the first walnut biscuit in the bottom of your frame. Brush the biscuit with syrup or the juice from the pears in syrup.
Walnut Praline
✔100g nuts
✔50g caster sugar
Roast the nuts on a baking tray for 15 minutes in the oven at 150°C. Make a caramel with the sugar and pour onto baking paper. When it has cooled, break it into pieces and put it in the bowl of a blender. Add the nuts and blend until you have a praline. Be careful, you need a good blender.
White chocolate and nut praline crisp (the day before)
✔50g walnut praline
✔25g white chocolate
✔10g crêpes dentelles
In a bowl, pour the praline, the previously melted white chocolate and add the crumbled crêpes dentelles. Mix gently. Roll out the crêpes dentelles between two sheets of greaseproof paper into a square the size of your frame (15X15cm for me). Place in the freezer for a few minutes. Cut the crisp to the size of your frame.
Pear mousse
✔2 sheets gelatine (3g)
✔120g pear puree
✔100g cold liquid cream
✔15g icing sugar
✔1 half a pear cut into small cubes
Soften the gelatine leaves in a bowl of cold water. Heat the pear puree in a saucepan. For the pear puree, you can either use pears in syrup, without adding sugar as they are already sweet, or you can cook the pears in a syrup (water, sugar, liquid vanilla) and then blend them. Remove from the heat and add the gelatine, wrung out and softened, stirring well. Set aside. Whip the cold cream with a mixer, adding the icing sugar. Add the warmed pear puree and mix gently. I added a few diced pears. Pour over the crisp. Add the second walnut biscuit. Put back in the freezer.
Walnut mousse (the day before)
✔1 yolk
✔10g sugar
✔40g milk
✔3g gelatine
✔50g praline nut
✔100g cold liquid cream
Soften the gelatine leaves in a bowl of cold water. Heat, in a small saucepan, the 40g of milk. Mix the egg yolk and caster sugar in a bowl. Pour in the hot milk. Mix well and return to the pan. While stirring, heat until it reaches 82 to 83°C. . Remove from the heat and add the gelatine, well wrung out and previously softened, and the nut praline. Mix well. Set aside. Whip the cold cream (100g) with an electric mixer. Gently add the previous mixture with a spatula.
Pour over the second walnut biscuit, leaving 2 to 3 mm free if possible to apply the pear jelly. Place in the freezer overnight or for at least 6 hours.
Pear jelly
✔3g gelatine
✔150g pears
✔10g water
Soften the gelatine leaves in a bowl of cold water. Heat the pear puree with the water in a saucepan. Remove from the heat and add the wrung out and softened gelatine, stirring well. Allow to cool slightly and pour over the still frozen cake. Place in a cool place until the jelly sets.
Serve the cake as a whole (it takes at least 4 to 5 hours in the fridge for the cake to thaw completely) or cut out individual slices with a knife, removing 0.5mm from each side beforehand to have well defined slices.
I decorated the cake with caramelised walnuts (melt some powdered sugar in a small pan to make a caramel and dip the walnuts in it, collect them with a fork and place them on a sheet of baking paper to cool), to be placed at the last moment, just before serving.
